Pádraig Rice (Cork South-Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I am deeply concerned about the state of transgender healthcare services. In 2022, Ireland was found to have the worst transgender healthcare services in all of the EU by Transgender Europe, TGEU. The only dedicated gender clinic has approximately 2,000 people on the waiting list. Only 162 were removed last year. Waiting times are between three years and ten years, which is not acceptable. The journal.ie recently published a harrowing report on those services. One patient described feeling traumatised after going to the services. Another said it felt like an interrogation. People are being forced to go online to access hormone replacement therapy, HRT. Has the Minister seen these reports? Will she commit to reclassifying transgender healthcare under sexual health instead of mental health, following the model of the WHO? Will she provide an update to the Dáil on the model of care?

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